| Medgar Evers (1925-1963) On June 12, 1963, shortly after midnight, Medgar Evers — the NAACP’s first field secretary in Mississippi — was gunned down in the driveway of his Jackson home at the age of 37. He was born in Decatur, Mississippi on July 2, 1925. He was a World War II veteran who participated in the Normandy invasion. He served in France and Germany until his honorable discharge in 1946. After the war Evers returned to Mississippi and enrolled in Alcorn College (now Alcorn State University) on the GI Bill. At Alcorn he met Myrlie Beasley, of Vicksburg, and the next year (1951) they were married. The couple moved to Jackson where they worked together to set up the NAACP office. Under his leadership the NAACP in Mississippi grew to over 15,000. One of his first assignments was investigating the murder of 14-year old Emmett Till who was kidnapped and murdered in 1955. Myrlie Evers was Medgar’s partner in life and work. She assisted him in the NAACP and hosted civil rights leaders in her home, which became an overnight shelter for many African-Americans who were victims of abuse and threats. Medgar became one of the first Blacks to apply for admission to the University of Mississippi Law School (he was denied.) Later he would assist James Meredith in desegregating Ole Miss in 1962. On May 28, 1963 a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the Evers’ home and, on June 7th of that year Medgar was nearly run down by a car after he emerged from the NAACP office in Jackson. In the early morning of June 12, 1963, hours after President John Kennedy’s nationally televised civil rights address, Evers pulled into his driveway after attending a NAACP meeting. Emerging from his car and carrying t-shirts that read “Jim Crow Must Go,” Evers was shot in the back. His two small children witnessed the murder. He was taken to the local hospital in Jackson where he was initially refused entry until his family explained who he was. He died in the hospital an hour later. Five thousand people marched in his funeral; Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders led the procession. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery before a crowd of more than 3,000. Byron De La Beckwith, a Ku Klux Klan member, was tried for the murder. Twice all-white juries deadlocked and failed to reach a verdict. In 1994 Beckwith was prosecuted again and – based on new evidence – was convicted of Evers’ murder on Feb. 5, 1994. He died in prison in 2001, age 80. (Sources: Seven things you should know about Medgar Evers by Barbara Maranzani; Medgar Evers, the Mississippi Writers Page; Wikipedia.) |
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